How Kerstin Gier’s Books Fit into the Modern World

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Bestselling Author’s don’t fall from the sky, and for Kerstin Gier that didn’t happen either. Mostly known for her young adult “Gem” and “Silver” trilogy, she sucks her readers into a trance about time travel, dreams and more. Living in a village in north Germany with her 20-year-old son and husband, she writes her bestselling adult and young adult novels. In different interviews, she describes her way to fame and how her books fit into the modern world. Wanting to become an author from as young as five years old, in 2007 that dream came true. With 25 books published, many of them series in the adult fiction genre and young adult fantasy, not one of them touches on taboo topics such as rape and abuse. Apparently, this comes from her childhood as her mother wouldn’t let children’s books such as “Hanni und Nanni,” or “Fünf Freunde” into her house. Because of this, Gier had to read books about concentration camps at nine years old. In many interviews, she describes that this makes her want to write books that leave her reader “feeling happier than before they started the book.” The author is generally a very happy person as she says so herself.

You couldn’t describe Mrs. Gier as anything other than sweet. With a gentle, high-pitched voice she talks about her passion for writing books and transforming readers into them. Perhaps a bit uncomfortable was the question about a certain profile of the famous author which stated that she sees herself as a “drama queen.” She grew quite uncomfortable, having to take a large gulp of air and enlarging her hand gestures, which were largely kept in her lap, to explain that she thinks it is right to be hysterical when something bad or even mildly bad happens. “Pretty often I wallow in self-pity yes, but with reason,” she answered to the question if she often feels self-pitiful. However, you did notice that it was one she answered with humor and sarcasm, telling an anecdote about her mother. You could directly notice that she truly thinks about her answers and takes her time, taking a breath in between, looking around the room and then answering truthfully even to a question which criticizes her personality, for example, one about if she is a very critical person to which she directly answered “yes.”

With more and more people trading the traditional letter donned pages to scouring through social media, Gier had to overcome the challenges of being a bestselling author in a world surrounding itself with technology. Journalist Daniel Haas wrote in a Frankfurter Allgemeine Article that “Gier uses the fragmentation of the world through Media for another project: She wants to consolidate, and generate continuity. Apparently, she also uses this idea in aesthetic reasoning.” In the bestselling Gem trilogy, a code that needs to be deciphered using Tolstoy’s Novel, Anna Karenina she integrates literary tradition into her books, perhaps to teach teenagers infatuated with today’s technology a few classics. Her Silver trilogy has a key element used by Gier to bring insight of the main characters to the readers, the “Tittle-Tattle blog.” She integrates a social media platform into her book to seem more in tune with today’s modern world. Gier also says that “You have to add different elements into a story when writing teenage or adult books.” This is because adults still know the world without technology so Gier sees no need to add technology in her adult novels.

The number of teenagers wanting to read has declined by 20%. In 1984, 64% of seventeen-year-olds said they read once a week or more but nowadays 45% of seventeen-year-olds read by choice once or twice per year. Now, how does a bestselling author deal with these changes of modern society? Gier’s rise to fame didn’t come in a flash but grew over the years. She states that 2007 was the year that really made the difference for her, but how did she do it? “Write exactly the story that you would like to read,” is the mantra she lives by. The bestselling author says that she only wrote a bestseller when she wrote what she really wanted. “To write a bestseller on demand, it doesn’t work that way.” When asked about bad reviews she said “I don’t remember critic to be honest and if I do, I realize how different each person’s taste is. I’ve just noticed that you can’t make everyone happy.” However, this came with experience. As an up and coming author, she scoured the internet every day looking at reviews und would be devastated to find a bad one. Nowadays when Gier comes across criticism it doesn’t affect her anymore, “constructive criticism is not bad especially because it focuses on mostly details and then most often I realize that’s right! He or she has justly said this and I try to consider it in something new that I write.”

Kerstin Gier will keep on gifting the world with novels that make the reader feel happy and uplifted, perhaps even believing a bit in magic. The bestselling author is a sweet, middle-aged woman who seems to care deeply about her family and about her passion, writing. Having fulfilled her dream her first novel was published in 1996 and from then on she climbed the career ladder becoming a bestselling author in 2007. She knows both sides of the writing industry, one without e-book readers and social media platforms and one with. Gier’s work still fits into the modern world as she accommodates her entire viewership with elements that help her fit into today. Her trick is to write what she wants and not care about what the public craves, even though she has the influence to write about topics which desperately need to be talked about. Kerstin Gier has made it to fame and she will keep on transforming her readers into new and exciting worlds.